1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user interface for computers that allow user head motion to control aspects of its interface.
2. Background of the Invention
Computers have vastly increased their ability to process information. Many computers now include one or more powerful microprocessors. Multitasking operating systems have given the computer the ability to execute more than one application at a time. Application programs have taken advantage of this increased computing power, and as a result, have become more graphic intensive.
The size of standard computer terminals (e.g., a 19 inch monitor) has become a limiting factor in presenting processed information to the user. A standard desktop computer now has the capability to inundate the display terminal of the computer with information. The computer industry has attempted several approaches to overcome this problem.
The most common approach has been window based software. Windowing systems attempt to maximize the use of the screen space of a display terminal by providing overlapping windows and icons. The window operating environment, although useful, is often frustrating to operate. The user is required to spend an inordinate amount of time moving, resizing, and opening and closing various windows and icons on the display space. The opening and closing of a window is often slow. Overlapping windows can be aggravating to the eye. It is also difficult to manipulate information within windows. The physical size of the display terminal limits the size of each window, the number of windows that can be displayed at a given time, and, in the case of graphic intensive applications, is often too small to display an image of an object in its entirety.
Another approach to increasing the display surface area of a computer is to simply use a larger monitor. Several companies are marketing twenty-eight (28) inch diagonal monitors. These extra-large monitors do increase the display capabilities of the computer to some degree, but the problems outlined above are still present. These monitors are also prohibitively expensive to build and difficult to ship to customers. One such monitor currently on the market weighs over two hundred pounds and is more than thirty inches deep. This monitor is clearly impractical for standard desktop computers.
Virtual reality systems represent yet another approach to increasing the display area of a computer. It is believed a virtual reality system was first described by Ivan Sutherland, a co-inventor of the parent application of the present application, in a seminal article entitled xe2x80x9cA head-mounted three dimensional displayxe2x80x9d, AFIPS Conference Proceedings, Volume 33, 1968. This article describes an imaging pipeline, including: a database for storing all the data, relationships and objects that are relevant to a model to be displayed; a position sensor for selecting a view point of the model to be displayed; a transformer for traversing the database, extracting the appropriate data to generate the model from the selected view point, and transforming it on the fly to a display format; a frame buffer for storing the transformed data; and the head mounted display for displaying the data stored in the frame buffer. The virtual reality system thus provides the user with a head-motion parallax: when the user moves his or her head, the view seen through the head mounted display unit changes as it would in real life.
Another approach to increasing the effective size of the visual space upon which graphic objects such as windows can be placed is to make the view space in which those objects can be placed larger than the screen and to place a map on the screen representing the various parts of that expanded desktop. The user can then select a given portions of that expanded desktop by clicking the mouse on the corresponding portion of the desktop map. While this can be useful, it requires the user to perform mouse operations to access different portions of the view space, which take time and which can be difficult if his computer does not have mouse or if he, or his hands, are not in situation in which using a mouse is convenient. In the mobile computing made possible by smaller computers and displays, traditional computer mice are often difficult and awkward to use, and other methods of selecting and interacting with computing objects are desirable.
It is an object of the invention to provide a user interface for computer systems in which a user has provide useful input into the interface through use of his or her head;
It is another object of the present invention to make it easier to access computer information and/or applications.
It is still another object of the present invention to make it easier to access windows or groupings of windows in computing system with a graphic user interface.
It is yet another object of the present invention to enable users to rapidly navigate through windows or computational objects.
It is still another object of the present invention to make it easy to perform certain computer functions without requiring use of a keyboard or mouse.
The present invention relates to a system and method for improving computer user interfaces.
According to one aspect of the invention, a head mounted display (HMD) apparatus is provided. The HMD apparatus includes a display which can be seen by a user wearing the apparatus. The apparatus also includes a directional detector for generating an object detection signal when the detector receives a certain signal from a physical object in response to the detector being pointed at the object. The detector is mounted on the apparatus so a user wearing the apparatus can point the detector by moving his or her head.
In some embodiments of this aspect of the invention the HMD apparatus includes a see-through window to enable a user to see his or her physical surroundings when wearing the apparatus. In some embodiments the apparatus includes an additional input device to enable a user wearing the apparatus to selectively generate computer readable signals in addition to those generated by said detector. In many embodiments the detector points in the same general direction as the face of a user wearing the HMD apparatus. In some embodiments the directional detector has a limited angular view from which it can receive radiation, the user can point the angular view by moving his or her head, and the directional detector generates the object detection signal when the detector is pointed at one of said physical object so that it can receive radiation coming straight from the object.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method of computing a graphical user interface is provided. The method includes computing a view space in which graphical user interface windows generated by separate computer processes can be selectively located by a user. The view space has a plurality of discrete portions, each of which is large enough to hold a plurality of windows generated by separate computer processes. The method enables a user to selectively locate GUI windows in each of the view space portions and to selectively move such windows between view space portions by use of a point and click interface. The method displays a subset of the view space portions to the user with a head-mounted visual display, it senses motion of the user""s head, and it changes the portions of the view space displayed to the user, in discrete units of view space portions, in response to changes sensed in the position of the user""s head.
In some embodiments of this aspect of the invention, the user is allowed to drag a window with a pointing device to a desired portion in a view space portion. In some embodiments users can change the portion of the view space shown by rotating their heads. In some embodiments, users can use eye movements to input information into the interface.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method of computing a graphical user interface is provided which computes a computer generated visual space. It displays a subset of this space to the user, such as, for example, through a head-mounted visual display. The method senses user motion including monitoring motion of a user""s head. This sensing divides head motions into at least a first and second class. The method allows a user to navigate through the visual space by changing the subset of the visual space displayed in response to head motions of said first class, but not in response to head motions of the second class. This enable a user to move further in the visual space in a given direction than would otherwise be possible by causing successive head motions in the given direction to be of the first class, which are counted toward such visual space motion, and causing intervening head motions in the opposite directionxe2x80x94made to prevent the head from being over extended in the given directionxe2x80x94to be of the second class, so as to go uncounted toward such visual space motion.